This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Members of Congress earned their holiday break Friday by passing a package of tax and spending bills that will keep the federal government operating through next September.

More importantly, they did so without all the drama-queen antics that have made such a mess of both the government and the economy over recent years.

The $1.1 trillion deal was made possible by a level of leadership that has been missing in recent months and years, mostly from new House Speaker Paul Ryan and old Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi. Both brought together enough votes to pass the bills through some old-fashioned horse trading, adding tax breaks for the rich and the poor, allowing big oil to export American crude and letting green energy maintain some tax credits.

Among the many compromises that allowed House and Senate, Democrats and Republicans, to do their jobs was one that renewed, if only for a limited time, a venerable federal conservation program that some wanted killed.

The threat to the Land and Water Conservation Fund was real because its chief enemy was — and likely will continue to be — Utah Rep. Rob Bishop, chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee.

The 50-year old program funnels money the federal government receives in royalties from oil and gas development on public lands into purchases of land for the federal government and for the states. It goes for parks and playgrounds, trails and battlefields.

Bishop was determined to make radical changes in the fund. He had a reasonable concern that the states weren't getting enough of the money, but also a cockamamie idea that some of the funds should be kicked back to the oil companies to help train their workers.

When he couldn't get the changes he wanted, Bishop blocked a routine, bipartisan reauthorization measure and the whole program technically expired at the end of September.

The new budget deal rightly brought the program back to life, through only for three years instead of the 25 years its supporters in the conservation community wanted.

Fine. That's compromise. A compromise that also included a provision, pleasing to Bishop's side, that none of the money will be used for eminent domain condemnation of land.

Now everyone has three years to take another run at restoring the program for the long term. With a new president and a new Congress to be elected next year, that's about how long it will take.